FA Cup Final | United (N) - Sat 3rd June 15:00 | Pre-Match Thread

[feedmpenzaandhewillscore]

If this was an Everton v Liverpool FA Cup final and I said all those things, you wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.

They might be clichés in a few instances but things become clichés because they are true and happen over and over.

Finals and derbies often mean that form and difference-in-quality go out of the window. How many times did we dick United when they were at their best? We had the fifth best record against United in the country in the PL era before our takeover and we spent four years outside the top flight within that. How many times have we seen a Sunderland, Coventry, Wimbledon, Norwich, Birmingham, Wigan Cup final win against much better sides?

I’m not saying for one minute that I’m worried about the game or anything surrounding it. I’m not insecure enough to let the levellers do that to me, and I’m actually quite calm about the game at the moment. But those levellers do exist.

We were expected to get beat when City played United in 2011. They were pushing for a treble and had reached the champions league final. Things can happen in football, if our lot don’t turn up switched on or are thinking about Istanbul rather than this game it could be a rude awaking. I’m sure Pep is hopefully drilling the complacency out of them and they all know what their individual battles are on the pitch.

 

[St.Pauli support]

I wasn’t shitting it before the Madrid game. I was excited. I’m excited for this one. Hope it’s a good omen.

I imagine the boys in the changing rooms looking round at each other and thinking to themselves. ‘Every player in this room is the best in the world in that position. We are fucking invincible. Let’s smash these cunts and get to Istanbul’

Pep is working hard our lads don't think that stuff to themselves.

Be humble, we'll have to suffer at some point, they're worldclass, we have to be at our best til the final whistle... That's his mantra.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

We were expected to get beat when City played United in 2011. They were pushing for a treble and had reached the champions league final. Things can happen in football, if our lot don’t turn up switched on or are thinking about Istanbul rather than this game it could be a rude awaking. I’m sure Pep is hopefully drilling the complacency out of them and they all know what their individual battles are on the pitch.

The 2021 CL final was similar. We were a miles better team than that Chelsea side who beat us but we were second best on the night. However, I think that game might be a positive with regards to these coming two finals.

I think we relaxed after we won the league with three games left in 2020-21 and couldn’t get back up for it for the CL final. It’s very hard to play at a high performance level, relax, then get back up to that level again.

We’d made loads of changes in the final five games of that season with a few poor performances within them and we couldn’t get back up to previous performance levels that got us in the position to win a treble that season (PL, EFL Cup and CL after a record breaking run of wins in all comparisons from January to April) in the CL final where we were very poor.

I think that will be a positive for us going into these two finals because of the experience of it from two years ago being a lesson for us.

Despite also making loads of changes and being quite poor in the final few games of this season, we’ve got the experience of 2021 behind us and hopefully we do things wholly differently in the build-up to these finals than we did two years ago.

 

[Bellamy's Caddy]

Pep is working hard our lads don't think that stuff to themselves.

Be humble, we'll have to suffer at some point, they're worldclass, we have to be at our best til the final whistle... That's his mantra.

Exactly. I think that's why he sometimes doesn't make substitutions when we are losing, so the players are only reliant on themselves to fix the situation and they all learn from it.

As you say, Pep will be keeping them grounded and with his experience of winning multiple trophies during one season, we definitely have the right man at the helm to lead us through these important finals. He'll want that treble as much as all of us.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Is this done yet? Got bigger fish to fry , community shield .

 

[ancoats]

We were expected to get beat when City played United in 2011. They were pushing for a treble and had reached the champions league final. Things can happen in football, if our lot don’t turn up switched on or are thinking about Istanbul rather than this game it could be a rude awaking. I’m sure Pep is hopefully drilling the complacency out of them and they all know what their individual battles are on the pitch.

The only problem will be the match officials and the city players losing the plot again.

We are the better team and they know it, this is why the officials will try and make it a level game,
I still get hot under the collar when watching the OT derby and how the match officials control the game, every close call for offside with the city players was flagged up straight away, Phil Foden twice was flagged but was level or onside, but every close united call was allowed to run and an outcome unfolded,

It's them little things you see in the game that show how much Manchester City have to beat the system first and then the team that we play,

 

[jamesha]

Paddy Power currently have City at 2/7 to lift the cup and the rags are 27/10.

I'll admit I am not quite as confident as the odds suggest I should be. We brushed Real Madrid aside which should be a bigger challenge but I am more nervous about this game.

The thing that worries me is that the rags seem to score goals even when they are playing poorly. I just want the game to start tbh - too much time to overthink things.

If we turn up and the game if officiated fairly then the odds make sense but this is a difficult game to predict. Would not be too surprised if we scored six without reply but can equally see United fluking something on the break.

 

[kaz7]

Paddy Power currently have City at 2/7 to lift the cup and the rags are 27/10.

I'll admit I am not quite as confident as the odds suggest I should be. We brushed Real Madrid aside which should be a bigger challenge but I am more nervous about this game.

The thing that worries me is that the rags seem to score goals even when they are playing poorly. I just want the game to start tbh - too much time to overthink things.

If we turn up and the game if officiated fairly then the odds make sense but this is a difficult game to predict. Would not be too surprised if we scored six without reply but can equally see United fluking something on the break.

They will score on the break, they love our high line and we know that the officials are on there side when it comes to offsides . We have to score more and first

 

[PhillyBasedBlue]

My 'combined team'

View attachment 81398

Akanji over shaw, Foden over rashford. Casemiro over bernardo.

 

[cibaman]

Akanji over shaw, Foden over rashford. Casemiro over bernardo.

Would you be allowed to submit a team that didn’t include Rashford?